Mid-Air at Mountain Home, four 'chutes spotted, 5/17/26

I just came here to post this, though the link I had was so recent they hadn't identified the jets involved, and didn't yet know if crew ejected.

Glad to see the update reports 4 chutes.

My folks used to take me to the Mountain Home Airshow when I was a kid, it was a fairly short drive from where I grew up in southern Idaho, and it made quite an impression on me.
 
Best outcome, provided the falling remains didn't hit anyone.
Odd how they seemed to be tangled together for a moment.
 
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Thank God nobody ejected into the other aircraft. How does it work? Does ejection of both occur when either is pulled? I was just looking at the video from yesterday watching these guys.
 
Kinda early, glad they made it out. I’d expect every detail of the brief & flight protocols will be scrutinized, obviously. Something didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. I’d think the level of the demo would be well below Blue Angels style.

Yes, looks expensive.
 
Given how few Growlers there are I fail to understand why they're doing formation dynamic maneuvering air shows. Let the F/A-18 E and F's do that. Sure, it's fun and it's great the RAG crews get to take a jet on the road but given the high value nature of the platform why?
 
Ed Haywood said:
All the news releases I checked said all crew "ejected safely." I don't know for sure but that seems to imply without serious injury.
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I hope that's the case.

I've read the same thing, but nothing regarding the crew condition afterward. I agree the reports are implying no serious injury, but it would be easy for a crew person to be injured by the collision. "Ejected safely" doesn't necessarily mean they landed safely, and I doubt the press has any idea whether any crew members were injured by the collision or by the ejection. A deployed parachute doesn't necessarily mean the person hanging from it is healthy.
 
The Growler Demo Team is over. As in no more and it's official.

Just thank LT "Wrecking Ball" for this one.
 
Navy EA18G aircraft $125 million each. EA-18G jamming pods vary in price depending on the specific model, but advanced units like the AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) cost approximately \(\$43\) million per pod.
 
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Looks like he got high, and when he stuffed the nose to get back under where he belonged, sped up too much to stay behind.

May have even lost sight and tried to fix it…

Either way, elementary formation flying mistake.

You pull blind, you knock it off and get the hell out of there.

Pure speculation, but it’s likely.
 
Tools said:
Looks like he got high, and when he stuffed the nose to get back under where he belonged, sped up too much to stay behind.

May have even lost sight and tried to fix it…

Either way, elementary formation flying mistake.

You pull blind, you knock it off and get the hell out of there.

Pure speculation, but it’s likely.
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after seeing the video, your spot on. he lost sight, should have called knock it off.
 
Hopefully this link works..
Dash cam video of the crash site.

www.facebook.com

163K views · 1.4K reactions | More video from the F18 crash outside of Mountain Home. I am still looking for more information on the condition of the pilots who all ejected, and damage from the brush fire that resulted from the crash. Sorry I haven

More video from the F18 crash outside of Mountain Home. I am still looking for more information on the condition of the pilots who all ejected, and damage from the brush fire that resulted from the...
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
 
Velocity173 said:
@35 AoA is a Growler guy in the Reserves. This was the demo team in active duty squadron VAQ-129.
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DavidWhite said:
IIRC we have a member on this forum who is in that squadron. Hope he’s okay.
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You guys are both right. I wasn't involved, but I'm part of their reservist instructor cadre, so those are indeed the airplanes I normally fly.
 
Mutts said:
Thank God nobody ejected into the other aircraft. How does it work? Does ejection of both occur when either is pulled? I was just looking at the video from yesterday watching these guys.
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It can be set differently via an ejection mode knob in the back seat, but the standard position is in "aft initiate" where if either pilot or EWO pulls the handle, both are ejected in sequence. Of course, there is no coordination between two different aircraft. Which is really one of the bigger miracles in my eyes, aside from them all surviving the initial impact. Just that none of the seats hit one another.
 
brcase said:
Hopefully this link works..
Dash cam video of the crash site.

www.facebook.com

163K views · 1.4K reactions | More video from the F18 crash outside of Mountain Home. I am still looking for more information on the condition of the pilots who all ejected, and damage from the brush fire that resulted from the crash. Sorry I haven

More video from the F18 crash outside of Mountain Home. I am still looking for more information on the condition of the pilots who all ejected, and damage from the brush fire that resulted from the...
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
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Yikes. I had hoped that any wreckage would be in the desert (or whatever the area around there is called). It's right across a road.
 
Not really relevant to the thread, but this reminds me that access to southern Idaho's spectacular Bruneau Canyon overlook:
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Requires one to drive through Mountain Home AFB's Saylor Creek Bombing range. This sign tends to get your attention.
1779126147032.png
 
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